


Bout Time

by Phandancee74



Category: The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Time Traveler's Wife Fusion, F/M, Heretic Caroline, Witch Caroline Forbes, young klaus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:40:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24860188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phandancee74/pseuds/Phandancee74
Summary: Klaus first meets Caroline when he is six and she is seventeen. Over the course of his life she visits, he keeps growing and changing but she does not, at least not visibly.
Relationships: Caroline Forbes & Elijah Mikaelson, Caroline Forbes & Klaus Mikaelson, Caroline Forbes/Klaus Mikaelson
Comments: 15
Kudos: 114





	1. Getting to Know All About You

Klaus meets Caroline for the first time when he is six years old and she is seventeen. He is out on a hunting trip with his father and older brothers but has managed to get separated from them, knowing that his father will be furious if his cries scare away any animals he’s chosen to stay silent and wait for someone to come find him. After about two minutes of this he gets bored and decides to climb the tree he’s been resting on to see if he can find them. As he is transferring his left foot from one branch to another his grip on the trunk of the tree slips and he falls into the open arms of the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen.

“Who are you?” He asks immediately. There isn’t anyone in his village that he doesn’t know. 

“My name is Caroline.” She says, but it doesn’t sound right when she says it. 

“Why are you talking strangely?” He asks.

“Your language is not my first.” She answers kindly. Klaus hasn’t heard any other languages though he knows there are others. 

“Wow. Can you teach me your language?” 

“Not today, I think we only have a few minutes.” Caroline tells him.

“What do you mean?” 

“I need to get you back to Mikael and your brothers.”

“You know my father?” Klaus is intrigued by this woman.

“A little, mostly by reputation. He doesn’t know me.” That was too bad, Klaus was hoping to ask his father more about her. 

“I don’t have to go back yet.” Klaus told her. “We can talk more.”

“Another time we will but I want to make sure you are safe before I leave.”

“Why do you have to leave?” Klaus wants to spend more time with her. She is nice to him and her voice while strange is lovely.

“I will be back again, Nik. Don’t worry. Here, let me pick you up.”

“I’m old enough to walk.” Klaus doesn’t want his new friend to think he is a baby like Kol or Rebekah.

“Of course you are.” She assures him. “But I’m very fast when I run and your father is far away now.” She picks him up before he can protest further. “Now close your eyes and we’ll be there before you know it.”

“Why do I have to close my eyes?” He asks her.

“It’s a game.” She tells him. “Close your eyes and when you open them you’ll be with your family.”

Klaus looks at her for a moment, she’s got him against her hip so he can see her face very closely. He takes a moment to memorize it, so that when he gets back to the village he can look for her. “Okay. I’m ready.” He closes his eyes and a moment later when he reopens them to try to see where they are going he’s on the ground and she’s gone. 

“There you are.” Elijah grabs him quickly. “I told Father that you hadn’t run off, don’t get lost out here he’d be very mad.”  
____________________________________________________________________________

Klaus had tried to find Caroline when he’d gotten back home after the successful hunt. But for the next few weeks afterwards he saw no one new and when he asked Elijah about it his brother hadn’t heard of her or seen anyone who looked like her. He didn’t dare ask his father and his mother said he’d just made the woman up. 

Then one day when he was out grabbing firewood he saw her again.

“Caroline!” He ran to her. “You’re back.”

“I told you that you would see me again.” She said with a smile. She picked him up and hugged him for a moment before putting him back onto the ground. 

“Elijah said he’d never seen you and Mother said you weren’t real.”

“Well, I am real but you should keep me a secret.”

“A secret?” Klaus asked. “Why?”

Caroline looked at him for a moment. “You know that your mother is a witch, right?”

“Yes.” 

“So am I.” Klaus’ eyes grew big. He only knew two witches, his mother and one of the women in town. “But I’m a special type of witch and we don’t really get along well with others. If your mother found out what I was she would try to keep you away from me.”

Klaus thought about it. “Should I stay away from you?”

Caroline laughed. “You have nothing to worry about from me, Nik. I promise.”

“Are you staying this time?”

Caroline sighed. “Not this time, Nik. But until I leave do you want to play for a bit?”

“I can’t play. I have to get firewood.” Klaus would love to play with his friend but he knew that he would be in trouble if he didn’t come back with the wood soon.

“I can get all the firewood now and then we can play until I have to go.” Caroline told him. 

“I’ll help you.” Klaus told her. “It’s my job anyway.”

“You can help by closing your eyes again.”

“Again?” Klaus asked with a whine. “But I know you’re a witch now, you can just show me your magic.”

Caroline laughed at this. “I have more than one secret, Nik. Someday I’ll tell you all of them, but for now you need to close your eyes.”

Klaus sighed and closed his eyes. A moment later he felt a tap on his shoulder and he opened his eyes to see Caroline standing atop a small mountain of wood. It was ten times what he would need to bring home tonight.

“Wow.”

Caroline hopped down from the pile. “What do you want to play?”

“I don’t know. I don’t have my wooden sword to practice with and you’re a girl so I guess you can’t sword fight anyway.”

Caroline frowned. “Of course a girl can sword fight. I’m not the best at it but I bet your sister will be quite good.”

“Rebekah? She’s a baby and a girl.” Klaus couldn’t imagine his sister with a sword.

Caroline laughed. “Well, I stand by what I said. However, you’re right we have no swords but we could build a fort instead.”

“What’s a fort?” Klaus asked her. 

“It’s like a house, but only your favorite people can enter it.” Caroline told him. “We’ll make one just for us.”

“And Rebekah and Elijah.” Klaus said. “They are my favorite people too.”

Caroline smiled. “Of course, but what about Kol?”

“He can only come inside sometimes.”

Caroline laughed for a full minute at that. “Well, let’s get started. We need to pick a secret place to build it.”

“A secret place?” 

“Otherwise anyone could get in.” Caroline told him. “It’s supposed to be just for us.”

Klaus thought about it and decided they should build the fort near the river where he found his favorite clay. It wasn’t a very good fishing spot and terrible for hunting so his father never went there and it was close enough that he could still hear his mother calling for him if he needed to but was well out of sight of his home.

Once they’d picked the location Caroline made Klaus close his eyes again which he was very much against but she told him she couldn’t work her magic if he was looking. Finally he did what he was told and about a minute later she once again tapped him on the shoulder to reveal several large logs that had been almost interwoven between the trees to create an enclosure. There were smaller branches on top that created shelter in half the area. 

“This is amazing!” Klaus told her. 

“You go in first.” Caroline instructed.

Klaus did so and wandered around inside noting that there were even some small logs to sit on. He saw she hadn’t followed him inside. “Come on, get in here!”

Caroline smiled. “Thank you for inviting me. I don’t think it was strictly necessary this time seeing as I built the fort, but you have very good manners.”

Klaus blushed. “You’re really nice, Caroline. I’m glad you’re my friend.”

Caroline smiled. “I’m glad you’re my friend too, Klaus. I think I have to go again now. Do you think you can find your way back to the wood pile?”

Klaus nodded and watched in wonder as Caroline disappeared before his eyes. His friend really was an amazing witch.  
____________________________________________________________________________

After Caroline’s second visit she almost always appeared when he was at their fort. It wasn’t often, every few months, but he went every day just in case. Sometimes he brought Rebekah and Elijah and a few times he brought Kol. Whenever Caroline visited though he always happened to be alone. He’d asked her about that, because he told Elijah about her but Elijah thought she wasn’t real. 

“I think it just happens that way, Nik. I’m not trying to hide from him.” Caroline told him with a sad smile. “I know I’ll meet your brother someday though.”

“How do you know?” He demanded.

“I’m a witch with secrets, Nik, I know many things.” It was what she told him every time she wasn’t going to give him answers.

“I want to know many things. I want to know everything about you, Caroline.” 

Caroline took his hand. “One day you will know everything about me, Nik, I promise. Actually, next time I visit I’ll tell you another secret, but it won’t be for awhile.”

Klaus pulled his hand away. “I didn’t see you for two months last time, how long is it going to be this time?”

“A while.” Caroline said. “But I have an idea. Close your eyes.”

Klaus had given up on convincing Caroline that he should get to keep his eyes open when she did her magic. He still tried to sneak a look sometimes but he never saw what she was up to. He obediently closed them and sat down on the floor of the fort. Over time they’d added to the fort and the floor now had a rug that was stored under a rock when they weren’t there. His fingers traced the rug that he had made with Caroline as he waited for her to return. It had taken them three visits to finish it and he was so proud of how it turned out. Rebekah believed him about Caroline once she saw the rug because she told him he couldn’t make that alone. Elijah had praised him for his hard work but reminded him not to show their father, who would have beaten him for it.

“You can open your eyes now, Nik!” Klaus opened his eyes and saw Caroline had set several small bowls in front of him, each full of color.

“What are these?” He picked up each and looked at the powder inside. 

“They are for painting, Nik. I’ve seen your wood carvings and they are beautiful but I think you’ll like to try these too.”

She took the rest of the afternoon, her longest visit so far, to show him how to mix water with each color to make the paint and tore bark from birch trees for him to paint on. 

“I think I’ve brought enough paint for you until my next visit, but you have to use just a little bit each time. When you paint you can think of me.”

Klaus always thought of Caroline, she was a friend only for him. He tried not to talk about her too much because it made Rebekah jealous and it caused Elijah to get worried. Still, he came to the fort every day just to see if she was there. Every time he went home he checked the village for her. A few times he’d almost asked his mother about other witches but Caroline had told him it was a bad idea and he didn’t want either of them to get in trouble. He knew the paint would make him think of her and he only hoped he wouldn’t have to wait for too long for her next visit and to find out her next secret.  
____________________________________________________________________________

It was nearly a year from Caroline’s last visit and over two years since her first. Klaus had finally run out of her paint and was trying to make more on his own. He shouldn’t have done it when he was supposed to be on a hunting trip with his father but he’d just found some flowers that were the same color red as the paint Caroline had given him and he wanted to see if he could find a way to make them into powder. He hadn’t even noticed the deer they were hunting run behind him as he worked and when his father charged at him and demanded to know why he hadn’t shot it all he could do was gesture at his paint. That day his father beat him until he bled and could barely move, it was the worst thing he’d ever felt. After it was over and his father was gone Elijah had come to help bring him home. They’d only gotten a little bit of the way when he heard a voice. 

“Hold on, let me help you.”

“Caroline!” Klaus exclaimed, almost happy enough with her presence to ignore his pain.

Elijah tried to put himself between Caroline and his brother. “Who are you?”

“I told you, brother. This is Caroline, she is real!”

“Elijah. May I come help Klaus?” Caroline asked, gently. “I have some wet cloths to wash out his wounds and I have magic that can help him.”

“Are you sure we can trust her?” Elijah asked, he was wary of witches especially one that only appeared to his brother. 

“She’s my friend, Elijah.” Klaus grimaced as he tried to pull away from his brother to go to Caroline. 

“Fine. You’d only hurt yourself trying to see her anyway.” Elijah said. “But she can’t come into the village.”

“Of course, I’ll just carry Klaus to the fort and help him to recover there. Once I leave you can bring him home.” Caroline offered. 

“The fort is rather far, can’t you help him here?” 

“I could, but I think he would be more comfortable there and I will have no trouble carrying him.” 

Elijah didn’t believe her but allowed her to come closer to his little brother. Caroline knelt and scooped Klaus up gently then headed in the direction of their fort. “Aren’t you coming, Elijah. I thought you’d want to make sure he was okay.”

Elijah followed and didn’t say anything as Caroline moved swiftly in the dark. When they arrived she prepared a small fire in the front of the fort and heated water to help clean Klaus’s wounds. After they were thoroughly washed she told Klaus to lay on the rug on his stomach, she put her hands on his back lightly pressing on his wounds. Klaus hissed but didn’t say anything.

“You’re hurting him!” Elijah said and moved to pull her hands away.

“I need to have my hands here for my spell, you’ll see in a moment.”

“You didn’t tell me to close my eyes yet.” Klaus reminded her. “If I have them open the magic won’t work, right?”

“Not this time, this spell is different.” Caroline told him. “But I don’t think you’ll be able to see much from how you’re laying anyway.”

Klaus grumbled and Elijah watched their interactions. His younger brother was an open and happy person around anyone but their father, still he seemed even happier and lighter around this woman. Elijah’s eyes grew wide as Caroline slowly moved her hands in a circle along Klaus’ back. As she did so his brother’s wounds began to heal before his eyes. She stopped when the wounds closed up before they had disappeared entirely. 

“Finish healing him.” Elijah insisted. “Don’t stop now.”

“My wounds are healed?” Klaus asked, incredulous. “I feel better but I didn’t know you could heal people, Caroline.”

“I can heal people in multiple ways, Nik.” Caroline said with a smile. “But I chose to heal you this way because I worry that Mikael will notice if you are fully healed.”

Elijah sighed. “I didn’t think of that, you’re right.”

“I didn’t want you to be hurt again.” Caroline told Klaus. “I’m sorry I couldn’t have prevented this.”

“It was my fault.” Klaus didn’t want Caroline to feel bad. “I ran out of paint even though you told me not to use too much and I was trying to make more.”

“I know.” Caroline told him, sadly. 

“How do you know?” Elijah asked. “Were you watching?”

“No.” Caroline replied. “But Klaus, do you remember that I was going to tell you a secret on this visit?”

Klaus had forgotten in his pain and with the excitement of getting to witness Caroline’s magic. “You mean healing me wasn’t the secret?”

“It was.” Caroline told him. “But I didn’t tell you yet how I healed you.”

“How did you do it?” Klaus sat up now and was staring at Caroline hanging on every word she said. 

“I’ll tell you, but do you want me to tell just you or do you want Elijah to hear it too?”

Klaus thought for a moment. “Elijah can hear it too, I want him to believe me because I’d just tell him anyway.”

Elijah smiled at the trust his brother had for him.

“Come sit down, Elijah, this might take a few minutes.” Caroline invited.

Elijah got closer to Klaus and Caroline but still stayed a few feet away from her.

Klaus looked back at Caroline once his brother sat down. “Come on, come on, tell me now!”

Caroline laughed. “You are always the same, Klaus.”

“You don’t usually call me that.” Klaus complained. “You call me Nik like Rebekah does.”

“I do now.” Caroline told him. “But someday I will call you Klaus. I have a lot of names for you in the future.”

“The future?” Klaus replied. “What do you mean?”

“I’m a time witch, Nik. I am from the future. I healed you today by speeding the healing process of time to work faster on your wounds.”

“What does that mean? I don’t understand.” Elijah said. 

“I’ve already met you, Elijah. Many times.” Caroline told him. “This is the first time you’ve met me but I have known you for a long time.”

“How many years?” Klaus asked. “When did you meet him first?”

“I can’t tell you that.” Caroline said. “I’m a witch with secrets, Nik.”

“You promised you’d tell me all of them.” Klaus pouted.

“And I will, just not today.” Caroline smiled down at her friend. “You remember the day you first met me, Nik?”

Klaus smiled. “Of course I do.”

“That wasn’t the first time I met you either.” Klaus’ eyes widened, and she continued. “When I told you that I knew about your father I knew about it because you’ve talked about him. You’ve told me about all of this. You told me I’d build this fort with you.”

“What else do you know about us?” Elijah was worried. “We don’t know much about you.”

“I know a lot about you.” Caroline conceded. “But all you need to know about me for now is that I am a friend of Nik’s and that I will continue to be one. I will see you again, Elijah. Someday you will trust me completely.”

Elijah found this hard to believe but it was easy to see that he was not going to pry his brother away from Caroline. He would have to at least get to know her better and spend more time with her so that he could protect Klaus. “Perhaps.” Was all he would give her for now.

Caroline smiled at that, as if she expected him to say as much. “There is one other thing you should know, Nik. I travel through time but I do so from many different times. Next time we visit I won’t have been here before.”

“What do you mean?”

“You will have to teach me a few things when I visit next. It will all make sense when you see me.”

“Will it be a long time again?” He asked her, worried.

“Just a few weeks this time.” She was able to assure him. “I won’t be away for that long again for a few years.”

“How do you know? Don’t you choose when to come visit me?” 

“I can’t unfortunately. I only know when we visit because you’ve told me in the future. I know all about how you’ve been keeping track of my visits, trying to figure out when I’ll show up next.”

Klaus scowled. “I told you about that in the future?” He’d wanted to keep it a secret until he figured out if there was a pattern to her visits.

“In the future we will have no secrets.” She promised. “But that isn’t for a very long time I’m afraid.”

“Why won’t you tell us everything now?” Elijah asked. “It would make it much easier to trust you.”

“It would make it much easier.” Caroline agreed. “But if I told you the wrong thing at the wrong time it could affect your actions and your entire lives. If I told you the name of a woman that you would love one day or if I told you about the day your father will die, you would wait for these events and watch out for them all of the time. You would treat these people differently because of what I’d told you.”

“But these are things you know?” Elijah asked.

“They are.” Caroline confirmed. “I don’t know quite as much about you, Elijah, as I do about Nik but I know enough that I could tell you these things.”

“I can keep a secret.” Elijah said. “It will not change my actions, I swear it. Tell only me.”

Caroline smiled. “I could tell you one thing. Here, take my arm, we'll go a little ways away from your brother and I will tell you.”

“That’s not fair, Caroline. You promised me a secret this visit, not anything for Elijah!”

“You already got your secret, Nik. Try to learn to be happy with getting some things and not everything all at once.”

When Caroline and Elijah had walked far enough away and she could hear that Klaus had not followed she turned to speak. “The world will not be kind to your brother, not truly and not for long, until many many years have gone by. You know your brother as a good person, but there will come a time when you will be one of the only ones to think that.” 

Elijah opened his mouth to argue but Caroline stopped him. “I’m only going to tell you this secret once, Elijah.” Elijah closed his mouth and gestured for her to continue. 

“I believe your brother is a good person. You should hold onto your faith in him for as long as you can. When the time comes that you can’t hold on anymore, I will be there for the first time.”

“And I will know when that time is?”

“You will know because I will not know you.”

“The first time we met, then. You will help my brother?”

“It will take time, but yes. I promise to give you hope then. For now I just ask that you continue to take care of Nik whenever I cannot. Someday I will take over the job from you.”

“I will always watch over my brother.” Elijah said, proudly. “You will never have to take the job from me.”

“Someday you will deserve a life of your own, Elijah. Make sure to take care of yourself too.”

“That is two secrets, Caroline.” He told her.

“Living your own life is not a secret, Elijah. Though it will be awhile before you Mikaelsons learn that.”

With that they walked back to the fort where Klaus was waiting none too patiently. 

“You’ll tell me everything she said once she goes, right brother?”

Elijah looked at Caroline, thought about the pain she saw waiting for his brother, and shook his head. “If I am to trust your friend, Niklaus, then she and I must have our own secrets.”

Klaus decided to save his arguments for once Caroline left, he was always able to get Elijah on his side. The three of them stayed together for a short while longer, with Caroline sitting close to Klaus and often putting her hand on his shoulder to comfort him. When she had to leave she placed a quick kiss on his forehead and disappeared from sight. Elijah had been looking at the time and was amazed. 

“I told you, she’s the best, Elijah.” Klaus said excitedly. “And now you know she’s real.”

“Yes.” Elijah said grimly. “Though I’m still not sure if you should be friends with a witch, Niklaus.”

“Elijah, you are my closest friend, the dearest person to me. Still, please don’t try to make me stay away from Caroline. From the moment we met she has been kind and fun. Father doesn’t let me have any such moments with the other children in the village. Would you try to keep us apart?”

“No.” Elijah admitted. He would do whatever made his brother happy as long as he was safe.  
____________________________________________________________________________

The next time Caroline visited was as she had promised, just a few weeks after the last. Klaus’ back was fully healed and he was over the moon to see his friend again so soon. He remembered her saying that everything would be new to her but he didn’t imagine just how new.

She appeared before him while he was sculpting. He watched as she turned around and jumped backwards when she saw him. Her dress was unusual and showed much more of her arms than he had ever seen before. The colors were fantastic, brighter than the paints she’d given him and covered in flowers. He had never seen a dress like it. 

“Hello Caroline.” He greeted cheerfully. 

“Klaus?” She asked, unsure.

He frowned. “I prefer it when you call me Nik.”

He could tell she didn’t quite understand him. “You are Klaus?” She asked again.

“Yes.” He replied. 

She smiled a little and sat down then quickly got back up. “Are we alone?”

“Yes.” He told her again and watched as she settled next to him for real this time. Klaus started to talk about everything that had happened since she’d visited him last but he could tell she wasn’t understanding much and was just looking around in wonder. He sighed. 

Caroline looked over at him and smiled apologetically. “I will learn.” She promised. 

Klaus smiled back. He knew she would learn his language because last time she was speaking to him just fine. Maybe that was the problem with having a friend who could time travel. 

“I will teach you.” He offered.

“Thank you.” She replied. 

Klaus looked down at his clay and started to make a shape. When it was finished, a small clay flower lay in his hand. He handed it to Caroline and told her the name of it. She repeated the name and looked at the flower with a big smile. Klaus was happy to connect with her even when they could not speak well. He made her another dozen flowers that day and when she left he made sure she was still holding onto some of them so that they would go with her to wherever she went when she left him.


	2. We'll Always Have Paris

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Changes in Klaus' life affect his relationship with Caroline, but not in the way he'd hoped.

For the next several years Caroline was an important part of Klaus’ life. She was there every time that Mikael beat him to help heal his wounds. She was there when he gained another brother, Henrik. She played with him and helped him with his chores and brought him more art supplies. She often told him when she would visit next but he still came to check on the fort every day. As he grew older Klaus realized he loved Caroline, and perhaps the fact that she always came for him meant that she loved him too. Once were the same age, or at least appeared to be, Klaus tried to get close to her but she would always move away from him and she was just so quick when she wanted to be. Klaus tried every method he knew to woo a woman, including some to try and make Caroline jealous but all she did was shake her head in varying degrees of laughter and sadness. Klaus continued to age and worried that someday he would be too old for her, but he knew that wouldn’t change the way he was drawn to Caroline.

One day as he came to check on the fort he saw her fall down and begin to cry. She hadn’t said she would be coming that day and she still wore her clothing from the future, torn in several places and a matching path through the forest was broken. Klaus needed to know what had upset her so much. He knew she could tell he was there, because she always knew but he still approached her slowly and called out her name when he was close enough. 

“Caroline, what’s wrong my love?” He had taken to using terms of endearment on her to try and convince her of his affection but though they usually caused her to smile she had yet to let him even hold her. 

“Klaus, Nik. I’m so sorry. I was just in the village and I heard you talking to your brother - ” She paused and shook her head, the tears coming harder now. “I’m so sorry, Nik.”

“Sorry for what? Nothing is wrong with me.” Klaus didn’t know what she had heard, he’d been spending the day as usual teasing Henrik and Kol and helping Elijah with training.

Caroline looked up at him with eyes streaming with tears. “I can’t tell you what will happen only that I cannot stop it. Your life will change before my next visit and when it does it will take you so long to trust me again.”

“Nonsense, sweetheart. You have always been my friend. I will always trust you.”

She shook her head. “Try to remember that if you can, try to give me a chance to explain.”

Klaus nodded. “Anything for you. I promise it.” 

“Be careful with your promises, Nik. Sometimes they will be broken. I don’t blame you.”

“Please tell me whatever it is, I will fix it, I hate to see you so sad.”

Caroline shook her head. “I didn’t mean to see you today. I’m sorry you have seen me like this. This is something we can’t fix.”

Before Klaus could reply Caroline stood up and ran away faster than he had ever seen anyone move. He imagined it must be a part of her magic. How she had always helped him with his chores so quickly. One of her many secrets. She’d given away two today, but he didn’t know what to do with the information about his life changing. Caroline had always been so careful to keep things from him, he didn’t know if he should even tell Elijah.  
____________________________________________________________________________

Klaus saw Caroline a few days later, and he was now a different and broken man. No longer truly a man. Henrik had died, been killed by werewolves. It was Klaus’ fault for bringing him to see them but more than that it was Caroline’s fault. What good was it having a friend from the future if she let your brother die?

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He demanded.

“You know why, Nik!” She told him, trying to grab for his arm. 

“Don’t you dare call me that.” Klaus screamed. “Nik was the older brother that Henrik could always rely on. Nik was the fun brother who did anything he wanted. Nik was the idiot who took him to see the werewolves on the night of the full moon.”

Klaus moved away when Caroline tried to touch him again and when he did he noticed that he moved almost as fast as she did. His eyes grew wider and his hate grew deeper. 

“You aren’t a witch at all, are you? You’re a monster, like us!”

“I am both.” She admitted. “But you and your family are the first vampires so I couldn’t tell you what I was. There were none like me before you.”

“But why couldn’t you tell me about Henrik? Why couldn’t you save him?”

“I can show you.” Caroline offered. “I can use my magic to show you what would have happened if I told you.” 

Klaus scoffed. “And I am supposed to believe you? You who cried to me and begged my forgiveness just a few days ago. It would have been so easy for you to stop all of this.”

Caroline looked at him strangely. “I haven’t been there yet. You never told me you saw me before his death.”

“I guess I deserve to keep some secrets too then. Like how I comforted the woman who left my beloved brother to die. Leave, Caroline. Don’t ever come back.”

Caroline started to move but Klaus ran off before she could. Instead she sat back down, in the ruined fort she’d arrived in. Burned and torn and bloody. Klaus had taken revenge on her by desecrating their memories here. She waited for Elijah to come to her, he’d begun his approach when Klaus began to scream and she would wait for his judgement too. 

“Can you show me?” Elijah asked. “Can you show me what would have happened if you’d told us?”

Caroline turned to him. “I can. I’ll need supplies but I will be back in a moment. Go to the place where it happened and I will meet you there.”

Elijah walked slowly to the place where his brother fell. He had worried for years that Caroline would hurt Klaus eventually, but he couldn’t imagine it like this. Break his heart with her unchanging face, yes, but why would she leave Henrik to die? Why would she let them be turned into monsters? Was Caroline so lonely she’d let Klaus be made into her own image?

Caroline appeared interrupting his thoughts. She drew out a circle and then placed various flowers and insects at even intervals. 

“What is this for?” He asked.

“The flowers tie me to the earth. They grow year after year and are their own kind of immortal. These cicadas spring forth from the ground every seventeen years and leap in and out of life. They allow me to move more freely through time to show you what you need to see.”

Caroline took Elijah’s hands and pulled him into the center of the circle she had made. “I will tell you several ways I could have affected Henrik’s death.” she offered. “I hope you will then understand my judgement.”

Elijah nodded at her to continue. Caroline took his wrists and placed his hands palm upward then her own palm down on top. She moved her hands in a circular motion, the opposite direction that she had when she healed Klaus. After several circles were made, lifting her hands as she went she pulled one hand off and pointed in a random direction without looking. Elijah’s eyes followed her finger and he watched in awe as the world around him moved backwards swiftly, he saw day go into night and back again several times. 

_Elijah heard Caroline warn Klaus of Henrik’s impending doom and tell him to stay away from the werewolves. As time moved along in this alternate world Klaus became suspicious of the werewolves and started to pick fights with any that come near his family. Mikael is proud of him for once and eggs him on to get more physical with the “monsters”. Eventually Klaus’ suspicion and anger take over and one of the fights turns fatal. Klaus kills his opponent. In retaliation one of the werewolves kills Elijah. The full moon is the next night and Klaus turns for the first time while hiding in the cave with his family. He injures several of them as they come to comfort him while he lashes out in pain, thankfully they all survive. The next morning he sees what he has done and begs Mikael to kill him. Mikael refuses, and tries to goad him into killing himself by forcing him to look at Henrik’s face, which is still bleeding slightly from a cut over his eye where he hit the wall of the cave after Klaus threw him. Klaus flees and eventually Mikael changes his mind, deciding to kill Klaus now because he wouldn’t kill himself. Klaus calls out for Caroline, for Elijah, for Henrik, Rebekah, Kol, and in a moment of weakness for his mother! Over and over he weeps and screams as he runs. Elijah has to watch Klaus turn three times before Mikael finally kills him, noting Mikael’s speed and bloodlust in their final battle reflecting the power Elijah now possesses. After Klaus falls, Elijah watches mystified as the world returns to how it was when they started. It all seemed so real, still feels real. He watched months happen in the blink of an eye._

“Why didn’t you go to him, why didn’t you save Klaus?” Elijah cried and grabbed Caroline’s arms. He could see that she is starting to cry and doesn’t care. “Why did you let him be tortured like that? He needed you.”

“In that timeline, he died Elijah.”

Elijah looked at her like she was an idiot. “Yes, I saw that for myself, Caroline.”

Caroline forced herself to pause for a moment, trying to collect herself so she would be clear when she explained everything. “If Klaus dies, I never become a vampire and therefore never warn him about Henrik so everything recycles and ends how it was meant to.” 

“How do I know that was true? That you aren’t lying?” Elijah asks.

Caroline sighs. “You are a vampire now, Elijah. You can compel people to do things you want them to, including telling you the truth.”

“How?” Elijah asks.

“Look me in the eyes and tell me to do something that I wouldn’t do otherwise like break my arm or cut off all my hair.” 

Elijah’s eyes widened and he looked disturbed. Still, he needed to know what she had shown him was true. Also, if what she said about compulsion was real, he could also uncover more about her at the same time.

“Caroline, tell me.” He could hear the change in his voice and see a reaction in her eyes. “Do you love my brother?”

“Yes.” She said immediately, in a flat tone. Elijah had anticipated her answer, but still had little trust for her.

“Would you die for him?”

“If he would let me.” Caroline replied. Elijah frowned, she wasn’t trying to hide anything from him with that answer, he knew his brother would protect her, especially with the power they now held. Klaus may not have forgiven her yet, but he would. Elijah needed to make sure that was acceptable.

“Why did you let Henrik die?” 

“Because I haven’t found a way to save him yet.” Caroline replied.

“What do you mean, yet? Tell me.” He demanded. 

“That was only one way I could have tried to save him.” Caroline said. “I have also thought of turning Henrik into a vampire or turning Klaus into a vampire before his time. Or killing the entire pack of werewolves that live in your village. I have tried killing Mikael, compelling Klaus to refuse Henrik’s request to see the werewolves. Releasing Klaus’ werewolf side so that he could bond with the other werewolves. Finding your sis-” Elijah stopped her. Caroline had begun to cry again but the tears hadn’t stopped her answers.

“Every strategy you’ve tried has failed to produce an outcome where Henrik lives?” Elijah asked.

“No. He lives in many scenarios, but unless your mother turns your family into the first vampires there is no way for the scenario to repeat and it is doomed to fail.”

Elijah thought for a moment. “If I find a scenario where Henrik lives that is repeatable would you use your magic to alter the timeline?”

“Only if Klaus approves.” Caroline replied. “I remember every timeline that I see, and I cannot live with myself if I break him like this again.”

Elijah understood. He would consider an option where he died instead of Henrik to be viable but Klaus would not. He looked away from her and let the compulsion go. “Thank you.” he whispered.

Caroline touched his arm gently. “I’m so sorry for your loss.” She told him. As she felt herself beginning to slip away she asked something of him. “Please do not compel me again, Elijah. I will answer any question that you have as much as I can but there are things I should not tell you.”

After she had disappeared he heard his brother return. “She may have asked you for a favor, brother, but she’ll get no promise from me. Next time I see her I will find out everything.”

Elijah put his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “No, Niklaus. You cannot affect the timeline.”

Klaus stepped away from his brother. “You will not tell me what to do, Elijah. I am both a werewolf and a vampire, I have strength you can’t imagine.”

“If you affect the timeline it will jeopardize our chance to bring back Henrik. I will not let you do that.”

Klaus nodded curtly. “You are right, brother. I suppose we do still need the witch.”

Elijah saw the hurt and betrayal that Caroline’s actions had left on his brother’s soul. The girl may love him but to Niklaus she may never be what she once was. “Indeed. Let’s keep this between us for now. Only Rebekah knows of Caroline’s existence and she would not be patient in this matter.”  
____________________________________________________________________________

Klaus did not see Caroline again for a decade. On her return she was wary of him,0 especially once he started to seduce her. She brushed off his advances, complimented his improved living quarters and left with a sad smile when he compelled a nearby blonde to kiss him as she watched. It took over a century for their relationship to return to anything like friendship. Klaus had flirted with her, fought her, attempted to compel her, and ignored her across her visits. She had apologized and fought in turn, refusing to allow him to compel her, and though she would not tell him her age, their speed and strength were often similar, something she eventually confirmed came from how long she had been a vampire. 

“Will I be as strong as you are then in another hundred years?” he asked one day.

“As strong as I am today?” Caroline said, taking a moment to think. “I suppose it will take you less than fifty.”

“So you are a hundred and eighty years old?” He countered, trying to win some information out of her.

“No.” Caroline replied with a smile. “You are an original and your strength grows faster than that of an ordinary vampire.” 

Klaus huffed and it caused Caroline to smile. Today they were sitting down together to play a game. She hadn’t let him this close to her in ages, especially on visits where she knew his power outweighed hers. Klaus wasn’t old enough to sense it yet and didn’t have all of the clever tricks she did to keep him away.

“Tell me something, love.” His response was something else she hadn’t allowed for a while. She had run away at any terms of endearment that rang false. The relationship that Caroline had lived through, the true feelings Klaus had developed for her, made his false attentions unbearable. “I hate to be kept in the dark.”

“I know.” She said, a slight apology clear in her voice. “It’s quite difficult to tell you much though without revealing the wrong thing. You are too clever for your own good.”

“Tell me about your family.” He encouraged her. “Something. They can’t be as strange as mine.”

“My family had its own problems.” She said finally. “I loved them despite those, though. They made me who I am today.”

“They’re gone?” He asked. 

“I won’t say more.” She told him but he waved her words away. He could see in her eyes the pain lingered. 

“Was I there for you?” Klaus tried to keep his face unreadable. He wanted her to think it was another question to tease out the timeline, to trick her into giving something away. Despite himself though he couldn’t imagine her in pain without wishing to make it go away.

Caroline smiled. “When you could be, of course you were. I know you still think you are playing with me, Klaus. That you are in control and I am just your tool and you will discard me when you’re done. Maybe you still plan to torture me for the pain I’ve caused you.” She watched his face contort in shame but he didn’t outright deny her claim. “But you loved me before and you will again.”

“And you love me.” His words came across unsure. 

“I do.” She confirmed. Her words caused him to look away and it hurt her that he still didn’t believe her. After a few moments she directed her attention towards the game and allowed him to do so as well with a few well placed teasing comments.  
____________________________________________________________________________

They were close to their old closeness well before Klaus first met Katarina Petrova. Caroline was happy with where they were and felt she could trust Klaus with what was coming next. 

“You’ll see me again in two weeks.” She told him as she sat down to the dinner he’d prepared that night, a private feast to celebrate a recent victory for the Mikaelsons. Klaus was delighted when Caroline had shown up and had whisked her away at once ignoring his family and dinner to spend time with her.

“You haven’t given me advance notice of a visit in three hundred years.” Klaus said before taking a sip of his wine. “I thought it was part of the game now, finding you before you cause any trouble.”

Caroline laughed. “You mean hiding whatever trouble you’re causing before I find you.”

Klaus smiled and shrugged slightly. 

“My next visit is important. Critical.” 

“Do tell.”

“In two weeks I will time travel for the first time and be very confused to see you. I will be in no way prepared for this trip. My clothing, my speech, and my emotions in particular, anything could give away too much about the timeline.”

The pause after Caroline spoke made it clear that Klaus was considering options. He could very easily get whatever information he wanted out of this other Caroline. He could know his future.

“Would it be best if I ran when she arrived then?”.

Caroline smiled. “No, unfortunately not. I’ve seen that timeline and baby Time Traveler Caroline who knows only a little bit of French is kind of a walking disaster. I believe I killed an important royal and I almost slept with Kol.”

Klaus growled. 

“No, it would be best for you to be very much alone when I visit next and for you to minimize my conversation and maximize your charm.”

“My charm never works on you.” Klaus grumbled. Once they’d gotten back their friendship Klaus had steadily worked his way back to trying to woo Caroline, sometimes for Henrik but mostly for himself. He’d managed a kiss on her cheek once on his birthday.

“You’ll be feeling a little differently in two weeks, Nik. Try not to be too delighted.”

“Anything for you.” He said and reached out for her hand which, to his surprise, she let him hold her for a few moments. 

“I’m placing a very vulnerable young woman in your grasp, but I trust that you will respect both her and me.”

“She is you.” Klaus pointed out.

“I might have grown up a bit over the years.” Caroline said with a smile. “You’ll have your hands full for a few days.”  
____________________________________________________________________________

Caroline woke in what she assumed was a bedroom of a remodeled castle. Kidnapping was the worst and honestly did all supernaturals have to be so damn dramatic and heavy on the aesthetic? She sped around the room trying to figure out where she was. There was nothing that made it obvious whose home she was in and she didn’t have her cell phone on her. She was about to make a break for the door when she heard someone speak. 

“Bonjour, Mademoiselle.”

“Hello! Who are you and where am I?” Caroline thought it best to keep the questions short and direct in any kidnapping scenario.

“I don’t understand you.” Came the reply, in French. 

Caroline thought back to her high school french classes. She’d done okay and maybe she could get some answers out of her captor, but she was wracking her brain to try and figure out who she might have pissed off that spoke French. Of course it was more likely someone Damon had pissed off. Now she just had to find her way out of it.

“Bonjour. My name is Caroline Forbes, who are you?” She replied, carefully going over the words to try and mimic her old teacher’s accent.

“I will tell you my name in a moment, Caroline, could you change into the dress on the bed first?”

Caroline looked on the bed and was amazed by the large beautiful dress that lay there. She wasn’t really that into changing outfits in this kind of situation but at the same time she was in her pjs and she’d look a lot more badass and important in a gorgeous dress than with her cheerleader warm ups on.

“You better not be looking.” She shouted in English then followed that up with. “Stay out.” in French. It only took her a moment to change but if the person she was speaking to was a vampire then it wouldn’t take them long to look either. Once she was changed she looked around for a mirror. On the far wall was a beautiful mirror with gold flowers under the surface. She stared at herself for several minutes, trying to get the dress into the proper shape but realizing she had little idea how to do it up properly. It covered everything though and she was able to secure it so she didn’t trip on it. Frustrated, as she could imagine the potential of the dress but not live up to it, she sighed and only looked away when she heard a knock at the door.

“Hello, Caroline. May I come in?”

Caroline went to the door and opened it. Whatever she expected from the decor and the language went out the window when she saw Klaus Mikaelson standing there looking sheepish. 

“What the hell, Klaus!” Caroline shouted. “What’s with the French routine? Did you just want to see me in this dress? We’re supposed to be friends now, I mean, _you_ say that anyway. What are you doing kidnapping me?”

Klaus held up a hand and then offered her his arm. Caroline took a deep breath and while giving him a glare gently laid her arm on his. She was, after all, Miss Mystic Falls. She knew manners. She would give Klaus five minutes to tell her what was going on and then she would run away like her life depended on it. It probably did after all.

Klaus led Caroline out of the room, down a hallway, and out into the middle of a busy street. A busy street that looked a bit strange. Caroline’s eyes roamed over every inch and as they moved towards a marketplace they grew wider and wider. Her ears caught more french. She turned to look at her walking partner and noticed his clothes for the first time. Although they were never clothes she’d seen outside of a movie they worked on him.

“Where are we?” She asked in French.

“Paris.” Klaus replied. 

Caroline stopped walking. “Paris. You kidnapped me and took me to Paris. I thought you were willing to wait for me. What happened to that?”

Klaus had stopped with Caroline and replied in French. “I wait for you all the time, Caroline.”

“Speak English.” Caroline demanded. 

“Speak French.” Klaus replied.

“Why?” Caroline asked. “Why are we here and why are you speaking French and why is everyone, including us, walking around like we are on the set of some period movie.”

“That I did not understand.” Klaus said. “But I am speaking French because you asked me not to try to learn things from you.”

“I never asked you anything like that.” Caroline said, confused. “I’ve asked you to stay away from Mys-” Klaus held up his hand. 

“Caroline, you are from the future.”

“What?”

“You are a time traveler.”

“No, I’m not.” 

Klaus sighed. “No matter what, you are stubborn. Does this world look like yours?”

“No.” Caroline agreed. “But I’ve never been to Paris. There could be part of the city that still looks like this.” Then she had a thought. “There’s something that will prove if you’re right or not.”

“What is that? Klaus said. No, don’t tell me.”

Caroline sped off and Klaus followed her. He couldn’t believe how slow she was, it wasn’t that he’d never raced a baby vampire, it was that he’d never thought about Caroline coming into her powers for the first time. It was clear she was only a few years old as a vampire. She was skillful, to be sure, but she was slow and without any of the tricks that had made it impossible for Klaus to get the upper hand in their previous encounters. He ran ahead of her and made sure that none of his siblings or any other dangers were in her path. When she finally stopped he had no idea what she was looking for, her gaze somewhere up in the sky.

“I think I believe you.” Caroline said after a few moments. She’d done a project in sophomore year on the construction of the Eiffel Tower, something that apparently did not exist yet.

“I guess that’s good.” Klaus replied. “But I’m not sure what you thought you would see here and that is going to bother me for awhile.”

Caroline blushed, trying not to think about all the times her imagination had drifted to Klaus taking her to visit this exact spot with rather different intentions. She tried to make a joke to lighten the mood because his eyes were far too perceptive. “Yes I guess another few hundred years.”

“Don’t tell me anything about the future, love.”

“See. That. You calling me love, that makes me not believe you.”

“Why?” Klaus said, cursing himself. He’d promised his Caroline that he wouldn’t mess this up. Her younger self was making things very difficult and far too intriguing, tempting him to see what other secrets he could get her to spill. 

“You’re always calling me love. Always treating me like I’m something special. It doesn’t make any sense. I can’t time travel. I'm not a Doppelganger. I’m not a hybrid. You make me so confused and I just want you to be the same evil person to me that you are to everyone else.”

“Of course you’re special to me.” Klaus told her. “You’ve always been there for me.”

Caroline tried to run, none of this made sense. Klaus caught her and whisked her back to his home. “I’m sorry, love, but you were making a bit of a scene. Please, there must be something I can do to convince you that you’re a time traveler.”

Caroline looked at him. 

“What year is it then, if I’ve traveled back in time?”

“The year of ‘our lord’ 1470.” Klaus told her.

“Shit, I don’t know that time well. Maybe you picked that time because you lived through it and I know nothing about it.”

“Or maybe it is 1470.” Klaus told her. 

Caroline started to pace. Klaus sat down in a chair nearby and watched her. He recognized the face of this Caroline, he recognized her intensity, and her wit. He couldn’t see the love though, maybe a hint of attraction, but none of the affection that his Caroline carried for him. He missed it desperately.

Finally she stopped in front of him and extended her wrist. “Bite me.”

“Excuse me?” Klaus was shocked. He’d never gotten Caroline to let him kiss her, blood tasting had certainly been out.

“Bite me. I’ll know if it’s time travel.”

Klaus took her hand gently and brought her wrist to his mouth. He kissed it lightly and looked her in the eyes. “I’d prefer not to do that, love. I mentioned you’ve time traveled and that I know you but our relationship is not what you seem to think it is.”

Caroline blushed and had to work not to remove her hand. “If you don’t do this, I won’t believe you.”

Klaus gave her one last look and bit down. He took one moment to savor the taste, and tried not to hear the sound Caroline made as he did so. She’d removed her hand as soon as he took his mouth away and was sitting on the farthest chair in the room, looking away. Klaus watched her and tried not to pressure her into speaking, the moment had been intense for him as well.

“So, I guess I’m a time traveler.” Caroline croaked. 

“And you know this because?” Klaus began.

“I’m not dying . . .” Caroline said as if it were obvious.

Klaus rushed over to her and knelt next to her to take a look at her face. “You were checking to see if I’d awakened my werewolf side.”

Caroline didn’t look at him, just bit her lip and nodded. She was overwhelmed by the thought that she was truly back in time with a Klaus who apparently knew her well and cared for her as much as ever.

“I have never seen you be more of a fool, Caroline.” Klaus grabbed her face so she looked at his eyes. “Don’t ever risk your life like that.”

“You could have saved me with your blood.” Caroline replied, trying to turn away again but Klaus’ grasp was absolute.

“What if you’d time traveled back to the present and I hadn’t been able to get to you in time?” Klaus demanded. “Have more care with your life.”

Caroline sighed. “I can count on one hand how many people will notice that I’m stuck back in time. I think I care the right amount.”

“You aren’t stuck.” He promised. “But I hope you count me on the list of people. Assuming I’m not dead in the time you left, you’ve never mentioned one way or the other but I feel you would have said.”

“You aren’t around right now.” She told him. “But I still think you would notice.”

Klaus smiled. “Don’t tell me any more. You’ve already done too much by revealing the fact that I will recover my werewolf side. It's new and comforting information for me, love. I’m sure it isn’t something you would have wanted me to know, I’m not supposed to learn things about my future.”

Caroline made a face. “Great, time travel is messy. I don’t need anything else to figure out in my life.” Her eyes drifted to his face, apparently he was part of the ‘messiness’ of her life.

Klaus laughed. “You’ll figure it out in time. I’ve only seen you this confused by it once before and that was when you visited me back in my village when I was a human for the first time. We could barely talk to each other.”

“How did we communicate, then?” Caroline asked.

“I gave you flowers.” Klaus told her.

Caroline blushed for what felt like the hundredth time that day. Vampires were supposed to have better blood control than this she reasoned with herself. She needed to stop letting Klaus know how he affected her. He’d left her graduation ceremony with the promise to give her time. Damn. Did he mean time travel? What an ass.

She gave him a look. “So what do you know? What can we talk about?”

Klaus smiled. “Well, I can help you with your French and show you around Paris. I can give you fine wine and food, art and culture and music.”

Caroline chuckled. “Of course, what else should I have expected? It’s earlier than I was going to let you do this, you know, but show me Paris. As long as you promise I’m not stuck here.”

“I promise.” Klaus said squeezing her hand gently.

For the next several days, the longest that Caroline had ever visited Klaus, the two of them wandered the city. Klaus brought her everywhere, showed her his art and even invited Elijah to dinner one night. Soon Klaus wished he could keep her here. She wasn’t the Caroline he had wanted, but he could see the potential brimming underneath and he’d waited so long to see his romantic attentions have any effect on her. They’d danced twice while she visited and she’d been so forward as to kiss his cheek the second night. He woke on the fifth day and knew she was gone. 

Twenty two years later when he first saw Katerina Petrova, part of his hunger to complete the ritual stemmed from his wolf trying to break free and the other part rested on the knowledge that he would not meet that young Caroline, the one that could grow with him, grow to love him until he’d broken his curse. His sorrow therefore had been doubled when Katerina escaped and became a vampire. Elijah saw the break in his brother then, and first started to remember Caroline’s words to him about having faith. His faith in his brother wasn’t broken then, but he did begin to doubt for the first time and held onto her words to keep him strong.


	3. I Want to Make My Feelings Clear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's about time for Elijah and Klaus to see Caroline for the first time.

Caroline’s visits grew less frequent again after her younger self visited. Each time she visited Klaus begged her for information about when he would meet her for the first time. He was a man obsessed. His Caroline told him she loved him, she shared all her feelings, but she couldn’t share that young love he wanted. She still refused to kiss him, and though she’d danced a time or two to try and calm him, it wasn’t the same as those nights where he’d fallen madly for her younger self. 

“Do you wish I didn’t visit you anymore, Nik?” She asked one day.

“I could never.” Klaus promised her. “But I never could have imagined how different it would be to have that love I know you feel for some other version of myself directed at me.”

“I’m sorry I can only be your friend, now.” Caroline told him. “I do love every part of you but just as you are impatient to meet her, I sometimes find myself impatient for you to become him.”

“It seems strange that after five hundred years I would have any growth left in me.”

“And yet, you are so far from the man you will become and sometimes so close to the one I met in the woods on his first hunt.”

“Are you older than me today?” Klaus asked, Caroline indulged him sometimes now with that information, it had become less important to him as he slowly stopped trying to figure out the timeline because he couldn’t imagine him ever letting her die. It didn’t matter that she would live to two hundred or a thousand or a million, of course she would live as long as he did and he intended to live forever.

“Actually.” Caroline said with a smile. “I believe we are the same age today.”

Klaus looked up from the painting he was doing of her. “Really? You don’t look a day over seventeen, love.”

Caroline laughed. “We’re both a little over half a millennium.”

“Perhaps a race is in order then, or a test of strength.”

“You think I could be any kind of challenge for you when you are an original?” Caroline said with a laugh. “That is a high compliment.”

“I would never underestimate you, sweetheart.” Klaus replied. “Especially not if you got any of your time magic involved.”

“I could do one race.” Caroline said. “But if I win you have to give me that painting, I’m afraid the material wouldn’t survive the centuries until I’ll see it next and you’ve done such a lovely job capturing my laugh today.”

Caroline used tricks she’d learned from her own Klaus to win the day and returned to her time with a painting that she added to a collection of gifts Klaus had given her over the years. It held memories of her husband and their friendship across fifteen hundred years now and she treasured every piece.  
____________________________________________________________________________

It had been fifty years since Caroline’s last visit when she found Klaus once again in Paris. He returned there often now, as he’d once done with the fort he and Caroline built. It was a place for him to hope and to remember.

“Take me to the tower.” She insisted after Klaus had welcomed her.

Klaus had agreed happily, he now recognized the Eiffel Tower as the location that young Caroline had been looking for. He thought now he understood her blush while she stood there and looked at him, or at least he hoped he did. Also her words “It’s earlier than I was going to let you do this.” He would one day promise that Caroline to bring her to Paris and she expected him to take her to the Eiffel Tower. His promise to bring her to this city had already been fulfilled but he was certain he wouldn’t mind bringing her to this spot a thousand times.

Once they’d arrived at the top Caroline took Klaus’ hand. Although she’d started to let him hold her hand more often now, she almost never initiated the contact. Looking at her face he knew this wasn’t that younger Caroline coming back for a second romantic getaway with him, it was something else. “What’s wrong, love?” If it was something in her time he didn’t know if he could help and if it was something in his it wasn’t anything he was aware of.

“I won’t see you again for many years.” She told him, looking away from the view. “But I need you to hold on.”

“I’ve waited over eight hundred years for you.” Klaus reminded her. “I will continue to do so.”

“You will have to.” Caroline said with a sad tone. “And when you next see me, it won’t be me and it won’t be the girl you fell in love with.”

“Who will it be?”

“A girl who has never met you.” She told him. “I want to tell you so much more, I want to encourage you. I hope that my friendship and love over all these years will keep you strong.”

“How long will I have to wait?” Klaus asked, Caroline free years were the worst for him and because of that for everyone around him too.

“I can’t tell you that, I can’t have you searching for me. That is far too big a change.” Klaus knew she would say that, knew she was right.

“Can’t you tell me anything?”

“Live your life.” She told him. “Continue your path and your plans and see the world, after all I’ll need a guide someday won’t I?” With that she gave him a hug, the kind she hadn’t since he’d been turned and she’d lost his trust then he’d lost hers with his actions. After letting go she raced off into the night. It wasn’t something she often did, but Klaus knew that sometimes when she left him she went to find Elijah, to help keep him prepared to deal with Klaus’ moods. Klaus stayed at the tower for several hours looking out and compelling humans to bring him art supplies so he could draw this moment. Eventually Elijah arrived as Klaus had expected him to.

“I’m sorry, Niklaus. I know you’ll miss her.”

“Did she tell you anything that I can hear?” The brothers knew that sometimes Elijah needed to keep Caroline’s words to himself. A few misplaced words of encouragement from Elijah had once put him in a funk for a decade as he tried to interpret a cryptic message Caroline had given his brother.

“She gave me the smallest hint, and warned that our time without her would not be uneventful.” Elijah remembered her words. _“You’ll find me first, Elijah. Remember, together we will bring your brother back to who he can be. Find strength in finding me but don’t search for me.”_

“Of course not.” Klaus agreed. “I’ll need a distraction. Perhaps a new city. Back in the states.”  
____________________________________________________________________________

Elijah looked at the list of people that Elena Gilbert wanted protected. “Caroline Forbes.” He couldn’t imagine it was a coincidence. For the past nine hundred years he had taken a second look at every Caroline he’d ever heard of. She said not to search for her but she didn’t say he was supposed to ignore clues. Elijah finished making his deal and resolved to check in on his old friend. 

He found her with another person on his list, Matt Donovan. The two were clearly together, it was a scene that Elijah could never have imagined even back when he was sure Caroline was some monster who would hurt his brother. Caroline, a human and in love with someone other than Klaus. How was this supposed to help him with his decision? Caroline had told him that she would appear when he’d lost all of his faith in his brother, something that had occurred after Klaus boasted of dumping the bodies of their siblings at the bottom of the ocean. Elijah had left him after that, waiting every day for Caroline to appear and fix it as she’d promised. 

She’d told Elijah on their last trip that he would find Caroline before Klaus did. If Elijah killed her now or allowed her to be killed now it would affect the entire timeline, or it might reset itself as he’d seen that time in the forest where Henrik had died. He could send her away, she looked happy enough with Mr. Donovan, maybe they could live out their lives together on a farm somewhere Klaus would never look. That could be Elijah’s punishment for Klaus’ betrayal, ruining a thousand years of friendship and hope. It was a thought that filled Elijah’s mind, but his honor would not allow him to truly follow through. 

Elijah took to following Caroline as he watched out for Elena. He watched on, torn, as Caroline’s car crashed and she nearly died. He saw Katerina smother Caroline after she was given vampire blood to heal her. He saw her first kill, the guilt, and her fight with Damon about how he’d compelled and used her. Elijah remembered the time that he had compelled Caroline, the tears coming down her face as she listed everything she’d tried to save his brother. How she’d asked Elijah never to compel her again. He’d thought it was to protect the timeline, but he can see now how part of it could have stemmed from this pain that she couldn’t possibly share with him or Klaus before now. Elijah considered killing Damon at that moment, deciding to wait instead to see if Caroline wanted to do it herself. She chose not to, and he could see it wasn’t a lack of strength, but a conscious decision on her part not to inflict the pain of his death on her friends. Knowing Caroline as he did, Elijah wasn’t surprised with her restraint, and he knew she wouldn’t be pleased if he rejected her choice and finished Damon for her.

Later when Caroline had been taken by Klaus’ witch as part of the sacrifice, Elijah pondered if this was the right time for her to meet his brother. As far as the world knew he was single minded in his passion to release his werewolf side, but there was something he’d waited even longer for. Elijah went back and forth in his mind about whether to rescue her or not. It would be against his deal with Elena to let her come to harm but against his own purposes to stop the ritual; Caroline had promised to take over the redemption of Klaus once they met. Damon Salvatore stepped in and took the decision away from him, saving Caroline and Tyler, another person that Caroline appeared to have an interest in. Elijah was beginning to understand the stress someone was under when they had such control over the timeline and foreknowledge of what was meant to happen. 

Damon’s rescue didn’t stop the ritual though. Didn’t even slow it down. Klaus had another vampire and werewolf ready to go the next day at the full moon. Elijah watched as Klaus was the same arrogant fool he’d devolved into over the past hundred years since he last saw Caroline. Elijah knew he could kill his brother tonight if he could just make the decision to do so. Perhaps the Caroline he’d known over the last millennium could save his brother how could this young vampire? She was so new to the supernatural that she still consorted with humans and made friends with werewolves. He’d only seen her kill once since she’d turned and the guilt and anguish on her face had been overwhelming. It would crush her soul to know the atrocities his brother had committed over the years.

The moment was coming when he had to make a decision. Should he let his brother live after all he had done to their family, on the chance that Caroline could fix him? Could he give up on the brother that he’d protected and loved for so many years? He raced in with his mind in turmoil and slowed as he saw his brother hunched over, the process that would soon give him incredible power also giving him this momentary weakness. Elijah put his hands on his brother wanting to look him in the eyes, needing to have a final confirmation of his brother’s wickedness. Instead he saw fear and the softened eyes of a man who was hopeful. 

“They’re alive, brother.” Klaus told him. It was all he needed to say. Elijah carried him off his thoughts bouncing off of each other, where to go from here. He wouldn’t reveal about Caroline though, he would wait for Klaus to find her on his own.  
____________________________________________________________________________

It was painful for Klaus not to tell Caroline he loved her the first moment he laid eyes on her at the high school while trying to turn Tyler into a hybrid. He didn’t say a word to her, afraid that if he did he would not be able to stop himself from grabbing her hand and taking her away from the idiots who were currently making his life mildly difficult for the second time, or as she called them, her friends. He watched her after that night and every time she saw him he tried to charm her again, the way he had on her visit to Paris in the fifteenth century. He saw flashes in her eyes, interest and humor and hunger for him. It was never enough. He was seriously considering pulling the dagger out of Elijah so he could complain to him about all the nonsense he had to go through to get a moment with her. 

When he’d told Tyler to bite her, he’d never considered that she’d allow it to happen. Caroline may once have asked him to bite her, but she’d always been so in control of everything, including that moment, that he hadn’t thought about her actually dying. He’d gone to her home to heal her, it was the first time they’d talked properly and he sat down on the bed next to her promising her the world if she would let him save her. He promised himself that night that he would never allow it to happen again, never allow her to be bit. This Caroline needed him in the way he had always needed her, for protection, understanding, and friendship.

He’d broken that promise a few weeks later when he bit her. Kol was dead and she took part in it. She stood there over Kol’s body and showed no compassion for him, told Klaus that he wasn’t worth talking to on one of the darkest days of his life. The woman he’d loved his entire life, the one he’d waited a thousand years for, was breaking him again. He’d forgiven her somewhere over the years for failing to save Henrik, he’d acknowledged it was his actions not her inaction that had killed his brother and Caroline’s promise to save Henrik if there was ever a chance was a constant thought in his mind during the years he’d been mad at her. Now, after his initial reaction to her taunts about Kol she was taken away from him and he thought about her dying in Tyler’s arms. Maybe it would be better if she never suffered through any more pain from him. Maybe he would never suffer through anything else caused by her inaction. It brought him no comfort, though he tried to feel vindicated all he felt was fear and self-loathing.

Tyler placed her on the floor of his prison a few hours later, she looked far worse than when she’d left and he knew it was because of him, because he was a monster. As he watched her suffer he thought about that moment a thousand years ago when she’d appeared after Henrik had died and he’d been turned. She’d begged him to listen but he refused believing every awful thing that had happened to him was her doing, her choice. He could listen this time. She was dying, for the moment only, and he couldn’t leave the room he was in. It was time to let the pain go, to acknowledge that their complicated relationship was more than the death that came with time. As she lay there and accused him of being in love with her he almost laughed. He’d never known anyone who loved him like she did, of course he returned the favor with all the passion he had. Their relationship was far more complicated than the love triangles the Salvatore brothers kept falling into, but so much more pure. Caroline reminded him that he wasn’t a monster, that he was hurt and that he could be better. Klaus knew she would have comforted him with the same idea after Henrik died if he’d let her. She would have talked about the good things, what the world had to offer, he’d left that day because he couldn’t handle her, the woman who knew everything about him and told him nothing. Today he couldn’t leave and he was the one with all of the power and knowledge. 

“Anyone capable of love is capable of being saved.” She told him. Klaus knew he’d done terrible things that day and for hundreds of years after. All those years he had never thought Caroline would save him, or that he needed saving, simply that he’d find her one day and they would be happy. Watching her dying twice recently showed him the truth, he needed to change for her.

Klaus told her that she was hallucinating, unwilling to acknowledge the truth in her words when she didn’t know the extent of their accuracy. “I guess I’ll never know.” She replied and started to convulse. Klaus grew terrified. He hadn’t realized how far gone she was. He needed to save her now. Pulling her into his arms he fed her his blood.  
____________________________________________________________________________

Once he was able to leave the Gilbert house he fled into the woods and ended up near the river where the fort had once stood. He looked around, no part of his former sanctuary still existed, likely it wouldn’t have even if he hadn’t destroyed it in his anger at Caroline.

“Are you going to rebuild it?” He heard from behind him.

Klaus turned and pulled this Caroline into his arms. He knew it wasn’t the one he’d left behind to reunite with Tyler. It wasn’t the girl he’d almost killed today. Still, he needed the reassurance that she was okay. She’d once told him that she lived to be over five hundred years old, he needed to see her and hear it again. As Caroline fed from him today he couldn’t help but fear he’d waited too long, that maybe his blood wouldn’t bring her back.

“I am alright, Nik. I swear.” Caroline pulled away and ran a hand through his hair. “You healed me and I am okay.”

Klaus sat on a nearby fallen log. “How could I do that to you? How could I be that monster that bit you and watched you suffer?”

“You are suffering too, Nik. I am sorry about Kol.” She took his hand and he let her sooth him.

“Why is our life like this, Caroline? I don’t want this for us, for you.”

Caroline gave him a sad smile. “Has this always been our life? I remember a lot of art and games and dancing.”

“But there is so much pain. You looked at me with hatred today as you accused me of loving you.”

“I always have been very perceptive.” Caroline said, teasing him. “But it wasn’t just hate in my eyes or in my words, was it?”

“No.” He admitted. “I cannot imagine what part of me makes you wish to ignore my evil deeds.”

“The part that recognizes my own issues and hopes they are overlooked.” Caroline said. “You can’t be a vampire without blurring moral lines and we have each had our fair share of trauma to work through.”

“From what I have seen and done in the past year I can’t believe why you would ever look at me the way you do today.”

“That is one year among a thousand, my love.” Caroline reminded him. “Give it a few more and you’ll have the girl you met in Paris. Another hundred or so and I’ll never look at you with anything less than my full devotion.”

“You’re giving away a lot of information today.” Klaus said looking away. “What about the timeline?”

“What about your pain?” Caroline asked. “I need to take care of you as much as I need the timeline to exist so I can meet you. I have given nothing new away, brought some of the dates a little more clearly into your sight. I’m good enough to comfort you without wrecking the timeline, usually.”

“I miss you.” He told her. “This Caroline is so passionate and fierce but she isn’t the balm that soothes my soul the way you are. She isn’t the person I have known and loved for my whole life.”

“But she will be. I know you’re already impressed with her.”

“Of course I am. You have always been an amazing person, love.” 

“And I will become the person you’ve always known just as you will become the one I’ve waited for. You think you are the only one waiting, Nik. This Caroline doesn’t know it yet but she’s waiting for you too. I’ve done my waiting and now I get to be with the man I love. One more secret for today won’t hurt I suppose. When I leave you today, Klaus, I will return to my husband as I always do, to the life I live with the man you will grow to be.” With that Caroline kissed him on the top of the head and disappeared. Klaus sat there, allowing it to be again a place of comfort for him, and thought about Caroline and Kol and Henrik. He thought about his siblings and the man he had been for most of his life. He would grow and he would continue to wait for Caroline.  
____________________________________________________________________________

It was very hard to wait for Caroline when she was kissing him like this. He’d waited five hundred years for her first romantic interest in Paris and had gotten a kiss on the cheek. Now, all of her attention, focused on him, happy to see him. It was too much. He pulled away, trying to explain to her that it was not Tyler that she was throwing herself at. His impatience fought his desire for her genuine affection. 

“Did you just call me love?” She asked, realization in her eyes.

Klaus couldn’t be too upset that she’d stopped them, when he certainly had no will power to do so but no interest in having her unless she wanted _him_.  
____________________________________________________________________________

The next time that Klaus gets Caroline in such a position it is very much by her choice. He’s offered her a chance to tell him how she feels with the knowledge that he will leave afterwards. He delights in the looks she gives him as they touch, it is clear that she has thought about this too. 

“I have waited for this for so long, Caroline.” He tells her, knowing she won’t understand the depth of his statement but needing to tell her.

“I’m sure you have.” She says with a devious and perceptive smile. “I’ve been waiting since Paris.”

Klaus pulls away from her. “Since Paris?” He moves to hold her face. “What do you mean?”

“I’m hurt you don’t remember.” She says a bit more shyly now, getting unsure of herself. “I thought our time together was very memorable.”

“You’ve done it then? You’ve time traveled?”

Caroline smiles again. “Just once.”

Klaus pulls her in close and sighs. “I have waited a thousand years for this. For you.”

She touches the back of his head and holds him to her. “I waited like five months.” 

Klaus laughs. “I’m sure we have much to discuss, love. But it can wait another few minutes if you’ve had to wait so long.”

“Sorry I’m not as patient as you.” Caroline teases and moves to kiss his neck. “It’s a rather large compliment that you’ve waited so long for me but I think you should consider it an even bigger compliment that I don’t want to wait any longer.”

Klaus smirked and moved her face so he could kiss her lips again. “We don’t have to wait anymore love.”  
____________________________________________________________________________

After Klaus and Caroline had sated their thirst for each other they lay on the ground in the forest together for several hours.

“I wish I’d warned you our first time together would be in a forest.” Caroline lamented. “You could have brought a blanket.”

“You barely ever tell me anything.” Klaus told her. “It’s most infuriating.”

“I told you that you’d be a Hybrid.” She reminded him.

“Yes, that turned out to be a little bit stressful for me.” He told her. “I was so worried I would never meet you after Katerina escaped.”

“But we’ve met before, you knew it would work out.” Caroline insisted.

“It doesn’t quite work that way.” He said. “If something goes wrong eventually the timeline resets itself but I could have lived a full life without you. I think. Elijah knows more about it than I do.”

“Why?”

“Because Elijah was less of an ass than I was, one particularly crucial day, so you told him instead.”

“I know basically nothing about it.” Caroline said. “Rebekah knows more than I do. Do you think I should ask him?”

“What do you know?” Klaus asked. It wasn’t news to him that Rebekah was aware of Caroline’s powers, she’d figured it out fairly soon after she’d been undaggered, though she had neglected to mention that Caroline knew as well. That might have been as a direct result of the daggering.

“I travel on my birthday.” Caroline told him. “I was born a time witch, something a bit rare apparently. My parents were terrified when I flat out disappeared before their eyes on my first birthday.”

Klaus’ eyes widened. A time traveling baby Caroline, his worst nightmare.

“They asked Bonnie’s grandmother to bind my powers. She bound them to Bonnie’s life.”

“I believe I saw your friend Bonnie earlier today, alive.” Klaus said, confused.

“Yeah, she’s back but she did die at our graduation. She kind of forgot to tell any of us.”

“How rude.”

“Yep. Anyway, apparently it broke the binding and on my next birthday, this past one, I traveled back to see you.”

“I wish I’d known it was your birthday.” Klaus said. “I would have thrown a party.”

“Well, it’s always my birthday when I visit you. Or it will be. After I disappeared again Mom told me the truth. Time witches have a focal point, a person that they always find. You’re mine.”

“A true love?” Klaus hinted.

“It doesn’t have to be.” Caroline replied, though her smile said that perhaps his suggestion was similar to her own thoughts. “My great great grandmother always visited her sister.”

“Is your mother a time witch?” Klaus asked.

“No. It skips generations. Seems like I’ll be the last for my family. Maybe someday we’ll run into another one though.”

“We do have all the time in the world.” Klaus agreed.

“I’m still not ready for that.” Caroline said and Klaus took a moment to breathe slowly, trying not to be too angry. “I still want to do college and all of the other things I mentioned before. I’m not asking you to wait for me anymore, Klaus. I’ll find you when I’m ready, if you want, but you don’t have to wait.”

“What do you mean?” He asked. “Of course I want that. I want you now, but I can accept if you want time to grow on your own. I’ll always want you.”

“I mean I know what brought you down to New Orleans, Rebekah told me. I know you have a family starting there.” Caroline looked nervous, as if she thought a thousand years of romance could be tossed aside by a one night stand. Klaus looked forward to helping her grow more confident in his love year after year.

“Whatever family I have will always include you.” Klaus insisted. Caroline looked a little bit more sure of herself.

“You should live your life with your daughter and let me learn a bit and grow a bit on my own. I’m sure you’ll see me at some point. If we’re going to live forever I’ll have enough birthdays to visit you on.”

“You’ll find me when you’re ready?” Klaus asked, if he was letting her go again, he needed confirmation.

“Yes.” Caroline replied. “And maybe I’ll visit even when it isn’t my birthday. Our forever isn’t starting quite yet but if you have time for a friend I’ll come find you.”

“As you always do.” Klaus said with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a few scenes I didn't quite know where to put in the story that I might write up later, let me know if you want to read them.
> 
> \- Baby Caroline jumping forward in time and Klaus being out of his mind terrified.  
> \- Klaus collecting things to give to Caroline someday, including the bracelet, and how he feels when he gives it to her at his Mother's party.  
> \- Caroline time traveling for the second time (not including her baby trip) where she goes forward in time and meets future Klaus who charms the heck out of her. When she gets back she teases Klaus about all the things she can't tell him and makes a few things up.

**Author's Note:**

> I was reading another Klaroline fic that had time travel and thought "Not enough confusing time travel!" so I wrote my own. I have the whole thing written at the moment so I plan to update pretty quickly.


End file.
